Sketch Grammar of Itaiapé
Introduction
Itaiapé is an a posteriori conlang based on the reconstructed Proto-Macro-Jê, a language family from Brazil.
Itaiapé is spoken in the north of Minas Gerais around the Jequitinhonha river.
Phonology
Itaiapé phonology is characterized by a small inventory of consonants with a larger inventory of vowels, as usual in Macro-Jê languages. Among other common characteristics are the four places of articulation (labial, alveolar, palatal, velar) that contrast oral and nasal consonants.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral | ɓ | t | c | k | |
| Nasal | m~b | n~d | ɲ~ʒ | ||
| Continuant | ɾ | h |
The nasal consonants have oralized allophones when preceded by oral vowels. The consonant /c/ is realized as an alveolar sibilant [s] before /i ĩ/ or at the beginning of words.
The voiceless bilabial plosive *p is absent from the inventory, and is replaced by /ɓ/ in loan words. It is agreed that a previous *p has merged with /h/.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | ĩ | ɨ̃ ⟨ỹ⟩ | ũ |
| High | i | ɨ ⟨y⟩ | u |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a~ã |
There are six oral vowels and three nasal vowels, only the high vowels have phonemic nasal counterparts.
The low vowels /e/ and /o/ are rarer than the others. The vowel /a/ has a nasal allophone that occurs at:
- the beginning of words
- after /h/
- after the nasal consonants (mã nã ñã)
Syllable
The syllabic pattern in Itaiapé is (C)V, any consonant can be the onset, in addition to two compound onsets /kɾ/ and /mɾ/.
The last syllable is always stressed, in compound words where the first is the head, the parts are separated by an apostrophe (') and the first word is stressed.
Morphosyntax
Itaiapé is a head-marking language with SOV word order.